Sth Dec.
'THERE have been some new indications in Europe of a desire to know the facts regarding the claim of the Chinese to have invented the mariner's compass. 'A professor in Vienna is now making inquiries on this matter. Dr. Chalmers, of Hongkong, has gone over the older passages in the literature and in the China Review and shown that in ancient times the Chinese had not yet begun to use the mariner's compass. Mr. Chi Mayers drew attention to the same subject and noticed that there is no reference to it in the early voyages of which we have any account. The Chinese used the needle in land carriages but did not think of applying it to navigation. As to one thing there can be no doubt; the Chinese did not learn the properties of a maguetised needle from any other country. They found it out for themselves, though it is impo: lo to point to the man by name who first observed that a magnetised needle points north and south. Doubtless it came about in this way. The Chinese as we know have in their country boundless tracts of ironstone, and among the: no swell portion is magnetic. Every Woman needs a needle, and iron early took the place of the old stone needles and were coumouly used before the time of Ch'in Shih-huang, that is, more than 21 centuries ago. Whenever a needle happened to be made of magnetic iron it might reveal its south-pointing quaity by falling into a cup of water, when it happened to be attached to a splinter of wood, for example. It came in some such way to be known con monly that certain needles had this ality. he great producing centre for magnetic iron 1s"T'szchou, in southern Chihli. This city was very early called the City of Mercy, and the magnetic stone produced there came to be known as the stove of 'T'szchou, and so tsz shik became the ordinary name for a magnet. Later the Chinese speak of the city as the " City of the Magnet " instead of calling it the "City of Mercy." Ihe polarity of the magné- tic needle would become known to the Chinese of that city and neighbourhood first. The first who noticed the polarity would be some intelligent person who commumeated the fact as an unaccountable peculiarity in an age when omens and portents were diligently sought for in every natural object and phenomenon. Kwei Ku-tsz, the earliest author who mentions the south-pointing needle, lived in the 4th century before Christ. There can be no reasonable doubt that the polarity of the needle was known at that time. Whatever myth regarding the needle was invented would be based on the knowledge of the physical fact, and the discovery of the fact must have preceded the invention of any myth embracing it. As to the discovery, there is no reason to. suppose it was in any way foreign, because the Chinese use an enormous number of needles and have an inexhaustible supply of ironstone. 'There is no need to say a word in favour of India because that country has no iron to speak of. But though' the polarity was known, we do not find that it was tumed to a practical use till the sin dynasty, when landscapes began to be studied by the professors of /éngshui. There was at that time a general belief in the magical powers of natural objects. This was a Buddhist doctrine and it took firm hold on the inese mind of that age. Just as Buddhists believe that indications of the influence of Buddha are present everywhere in the natural world, so the Chinese philosophers of those times right that indications of good and ill luck are to be seen all through nature. The polarity of the needle would take its place in this category of thought. Though it is not distinctly mentioned by Ko Hung or by Kwo Pu in the fourth century, yet to the disciples of Kwo Pu it became an essential part of the landscape compass which the professors of fényshui all use. Kwo Pu, the founder of this system, died A.D. 324, and it was not till four centuries Jater that the séngshui compass began to assume its present form. Though Kwo Pu's fame is great as a believer in the doctrine that portents of future kings are to be found in the localities where they will subsequently be born, he left much to be done by others, and the compass used by the féngshui professors for marking landscape indications was really first made about. the eighth century by Chin Yeu-han." The compass was of hard wood, about a foot wide, and it had in the centre a small well in which a magnetised needle floated on water. On the compass were inscribed. several concentric circles as on the wooden horizon of our globes. hey eu-brace the twelve double hours, the ten denary symbols, the eight diagrams of Fuhi and other marks. This compass was used in preparing a féngshud ree port of any spot where a house or tomb was to be constructed, so that the construction might not be pou, an unlucky site or planned in an unlucky mauner. At the same time there was living a Chinese who had studied Hindoo astronomy. This was Yieping, who was the imperial astronomer and also a Buddhist priest. He noticed that the needle did not point exactly north and hat there was a variation of 2° 95', variation went on increasing till a century later, that is, till the ninth century. A' professor of féugshui named Yang-yi then added a new circle to the compass. On_ this improved compass the first of the twelve hours begins on the new circle at 74° east of north, The compass it will be observed grew out of the old astrological report or nativity paper calculated from the position of stars, and prepared in the Han dynasty by astrologers as a regular part of social life, especially when marriages were about to be solemnized. Some of the old astronoical circles are preserved in the new ings hui chart. This was the compass used when Shen-kwa wrote on the south-pointing needle in the 11th century. This author mentions that any iron needle acquires polarity by rubbing it on a piece of load-stone. He alludes te the variation as a fact which he himself had observed and speaks of the south-pointing needle as an implement used by the professors of feng-shui. By them it was employed in the form of a float upon water. After this, in A.D. 1122, Sil-king, the ambassador to Corea, describes the use of the floating needle on board ship while he made the
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.